occam:

@ Amaka,

well, are Ghanaians, Ivoriens or other African countires constantly in the headlines

listen, i feel your pain as well. sadly this constant bad news affects us all. thats the fact  

The media is a propaganda machine.

Oba234:

Nobody is saying south africa is the promised land, but there are a lot of Nigerians that have this sense of deluded patriotism that really annoys me. They talk so much trash about the country without ever being there. I had a great time there and since south africans aren't here to defend themselves, I will defend them.  The Xenophobic riots in south africa was bad, but how can a country that just emerged from the Apartheid era handled the mass immigration of people that are coming to their country when they are still trying to develop their own country. Million of Zimbabweans are in south africa because of Mugabe and South Africa is forced to absorbed all those people into their economy and now the natives have to compete with them for a job when they are still  struggling. There are many people from the Congo there. Capetown is full of Somalis and Ethiopians. The security guards at my hotel were Congolese. The waiters at restaurants are all Zimbabweans. How did they get those jobs? Because they are willing to work for a lower pay than the natives and this doesn't make a lot of people happy. Many Nigerians are also there. This country is being forced to absorb all the immigrants from all over Africa because the rest of Africa can't get their Poo together. How can a developing country deals with all this? Frustration grows and it sometimes erupts into violence. In Nigeria, in the 70s or 80s, it was merely ghana and see how Nigerians treated them. Now imagine if the whole of west africa and south africa are now migrating into nigeria when Nigerians themselves are trying to find a job and see if violence won't erupt. Even in the developed country USA, anti immigration resentment is getting louder and louder and congress is in the midst of enacting a bill to not allow children of illegal immigrants to become a citizen all because they want to stop people from coming to the US. Arizona is now saying police can stop you to ask for your immigration status. Even in a developed country, it's a big problem, now a developing country like south africa, after emerging from Apartheid now has to deal with massive immigration into their country. I am not saying what they did is right, but frustration leads to anger. Also, the Xenophobic violence that occured in south africa two yrs ago was not as serious as they made it seemed in the media. The media is a propaganda machine. I even asked the locals there about that situation and they told me it wasn't as serious as they made it seemed and it was only restricted to a certain area

koruji:

@Oba234
Not many peopel would disagree with most of what you stated here, but:

1. These do not imply that anybody that answers Nigerian deserves to be discriminated against, especially when there is absolutely no other reason. That is the definition of bigotry.
2. Imply that South Africa needs a tighter immigration control, not some ad hoc repulsive "We Don't Allow Nigerians In Here' approach. Anything beyond your national laws and internationally accepted norms is discriminatory.

As long as a Nigerian is in your country legally, and commited no deportable crime, there is no justification for xenophobia. If the SA government wants to send all Nigerians packing let them do it openly rather than continue to harass innocent people.

The doctor that was harassed in this incident probably contributes more to the SA economy than the so-called bouncer - it goes both ways.

Your own experience should show you that this is patently wrong. If you felt it necessary to hide your Nigerian-ness in order to be accepted don't you think something is wrong - when you are the same perfectly good person whether you identified yourself as a Nigerian or not. Being nice is not unconditional - so the SA's you met might be nice to all as long no "Nigerian" showed up or they could just be nice people whether or not you are Nigerian. There is no way to tell, and you did not find out because you basically reversed the process and [size=15pt]banned [/size] your "Nigerian-ness" from showing.

Oba234:

first of all, Nigerians are not all discriminated against in south Africa. Just because there are a few incidences of discrimination doesn't mean the south african government hates Nigerians. Do you know that thousands if not millions of Nigerians in south african live there and nobody bothers them, but as soon as some nigerian experience some discrimination, it makes the news? They must love the place if they refuse to go back to nigeria. It's the truth that many nigerians in south africa are not there legally and many of them are in the drug business. It's unfortunate that the bad ones makes life difficult for the good ones, but it's the truth. A lot of nigerians in south africa are in some kind of shady business.  Secondly, you are taking what I said in the previous post a bit too literally. It was said in a jokingly kind of way. I didn't go out of my way to say I wasn't nigerian. Many of them just assume that I was an American because I came to south Africa with a group of Americans anyway and I have an American accent, so I didn't go out of my way to change their notion because they were right. I am nigerian american and it's not that big of a deal to me.  It depends on the situation. In some situation, I say I am an American and while talking to some locals, I told some of them I was Nigeria. It wasn't really that big of a deal for me. I do remember that I when I was in capetown, when I get into conversations with people,  I told some people that I was of nigerian nationality and none of them killed me o. Actually they didn't care, so now what?

koruji:

You are not disaggreeing with much of what I said either. However, there is a fine line between keeping an eye out because there are bad elements within a group of people, and using blanket "bigotry" methods, such as "We don't allow Nigerians in here". There was (and this is the point) "absolutely no other other reason to suspect this [size=15pt]particular person[/size] of any crime. They are basically saying if you are Nigerian, you must be criminal enough to be unwanted here - even if you happen to be the Doctor to their president.

Oba234:

I never said what they did was right. I[b] don't even know how I got on this subject,[/b] but I completely agreed that it's bigotry on their part.

Ileke-IdI:

Basically said S.A were nice people that treated you nicely.  But before that you said something about lying to them about your nationality. Am I wrong?

Oba234:

I defended south africans because many Nigerians here were bashing them because of the action of a few and there are no south african here to defend themselves. Since my experience was a positive experience, why would I sit there and allow people to say so many negative things about them when it's not true? read my whole post again, I never lied about my nationality.

when I was in south africa this summer, I didn't tell anybody I was nigerian. I have an american accent and an american passport so I was shower with love. I have heard that they hate Nigerians.

lmao, I don't blame you. I was a black american in southafrica because I didn't want to make enemies o.

Oba234:

I defended south africans because many Nigerians here were bashing them because of the action of a few and there are no south african here to defend themselves. Since my experience was a positive experience, why would I sit there and allow people to say so many negative things about them when it's not true? read my whole post again, I never lied about my nationality.

its not that they aren't nice people but some are saying how they act TOWARDS NIGERIANS. you were there claiming American so you did not interact with them as a Nigerian to know if they are really nice TOWARDS NIGERIANS.

the problem with Niraland is that its full of too many foreigners masquerading as Nigerians

agor1974:
.
####Nigerians should learn to be more offensive towards other black people these people don't want anything Good about Nigeria and Nigerians

kelvin:

I think it is still too soon to conclude that the SA government is doing nothing to protect foreigners, lets wait and see how it turns out.

Is this the first time you are hearing of south Africans mistreatment towards nigerians without the government dng absolute nothing to protect nigerians